1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system which performs a login process based on card information read by a card reader, and enables to output printing data selected from a printing job information list (printing data information list) concerning authenticated users to a desired printing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a printing system of so-called “pull print (storage print)” has been proposed. In this printing system, a printing request for printing data stored on a server is transmitted from a printer by only an authenticated user, and then the printing data is transferred from the server and output by the printer in response to the printing request. Thus, the printing data corresponding to the authenticated user can be output from the desired printer.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-099714 discloses a printing system in which an IC card authentication process is performed by a multifunction machine, printing data of an authenticated user is identified by a printing management server, a printing command is transmitted to a printing server in which the identified printing data has been stored, and the printing data of the authenticated user is printed by a desired printer.
However, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-099714, the information being a list of the printing data is generated and transmitted to the printer, according to a classification of the printer that the user logged in and the logged-in user. For this reason, there is a problem that the printing data for which the logged-in user is coincident but the printer classification is different is not list-displayed.
Further, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-099714, in the printing operation, the user has to first memorize the classification of the printer designated by a computer, has to go to the setup location of the printer corresponding to the memorized printer classification, has to log in the relevant printer at the setup location, and then has to actually print the printing data. For this reason, if the user forgets the printer that he/she designated by the computer at the time of printing, he/she has to log in various kinds of printers to search for the printing data of his/her own.
In particular, in a large-scale office of the present day, various kinds of printers are set up and these printers are variously classified and used for various purposes. For example, if a user wishes to print image data only for the purpose of reading, the printer which can operate at high speed but can only perform monochrome printing is used. Further, if a user wishes to acquire book-bound prints, the printer which has a bookbinding function is used.
For these reasons, the printer drivers of which the number corresponds to the number of available printers are installed in the computer of each user, whereby the user has to properly use these printers (printer drivers) according to various purposes.
Further, in the computer, plural printer drivers each called a printer object can be formed for one printer (i.e., one printer driver). Therefore, if the plural printer objects are formed and printing setting that the user wishes to use is previously applied to each of the plural printer objects, it is possible for the user to save labor for changing the printing setting when actually performing printing. In this case, according as the number of printer drivers and/or the number of printing setting that the user wishes to use increase, the number of printer objects increases. For this reason, if a time elapses after the printing was instructed from the computer, there is a problem that the user forgets to which printer he/she instructed to output the data.
Furthermore, a printer generally includes a multifunction machine (multifunction printer) which has a copy function and a facsimile function and a printer (single-function printer) which can only a printing operation. Here, since the multifunction machine has a large-sized display screen so as to use the plural functions provided, the user who uses the multifunction machine can display a list of printing data and then select and print the printing data that he/she wishes to print, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-099714.
On the other hand, the single-function printer has only a display unit for displaying only character strings such as error information and the like, the user cannot select printing data by displaying a list of printing data.
Besides, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-099714, since only the printing data, which have been converted into a printer description language, are output from the computer via the printer driver and displayed as the list, it is difficult to easily print various data.
Further, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-099714, since the printing data, which have been converted into the printer description language, are output from the computer via the printer driver and instructed to be printed only by the printer that the user logged in, it is difficult to easily print various data.